Cathedral by Michael Mangels (ebook reader color screen txt) 📕

him, muttering under his mustache. He pressed on. “As we join the Federation, we combine with more than one hundred fifty other worlds, and hundreds of billions of people, all of whom have their own belief systems and faiths. We are not proselytizing to them about the Prophets because we recognize that their beliefs differ from ours. From their perspectives, their own beliefs are just as valid as our own. And truthfully, in this wonderful, vast galaxy of limitless possibilities, who among us can say that the gods of Andorians and Betazoids and humans are not as real as we know the Prophets to be?

“So now, in this time of joining and openness, the political and religious leaders of Bajor have many pressing concerns. We are standing at a physical and metaphysical crossroads, and we must choose which way to lead our people. Our animosity toward Cardassia may finally be at an end, but will we continue down the path of peace, or will we instead allow our grief and anger and Occupation-era grudges to block our way? And our faith in the Prophets is being questioned by those who propose that the prophecies contained in the Book of Ohalu should be given credence and legitimacy. Will we allow our people to question their beliefs, to question the Prophets, to emerge with their faith changed or renewed?”

Bellis stood, interrupting him. “We know that you lead this so-called Ohalavaru movement, Solis. Your liberal platitudes may have a place on the street, or in your own gatherings, but they are heresy in this hallowed place.”

“Is your faith in the Prophets so fragile, Vedek Bellis, that you cannot hear the words of others whose opinions might diverge from your own?” Solis’s voice remained firm, and he smiled beneficently at the vedeks arrayed about him in the semicircular chamber. Bellis sat down heavily, harumphing as he came to rest.

Solis continued. “I know one person whose faith in the Prophets is strong, perhaps as strong as any of ours…and certainly stronger than some of ours. Her pagh is incandescent, her actions always, always governed by her feelings for the Bajoran people. I have not always agreed with those actions over the years, and I know that many of you have had your squabbles with her as well. And yet, through it all, her belief and her faith and her intent have always been noble.

“Kira Nerys is one of the best of us. I am humbled to know her. And I don’t find it at all surprising that the Emissary and his wife hold her in such high regard. Weeks ago, the wife of the Emissary all but cast Vedek Yevir out of her house, even as she welcomed Kira in her home to stay and recuperate from deep wounds. These are wounds which we have inflicted upon her, injuries to her standing among Bajorans, the military, and the faithful. We have Attainted her, cast her out of our faith.”

Solis brought his hands together in front of himself, clasping them in a gesture of supplication. “This overly harsh sanction is an outrage that shocks the conscience of our world. It threatens to divide our people more than the words of Ohalu, which Kira liberated, ever could.”

He paused, then delivered his final thoughts. “I implore you, my fellow Vedeks, to rescind the Attainder of Kira Nerys. I know that she has not lost faith in the Prophets. Please don’t allow the people of Bajor to lose their faith in the Prophets—or in us—because of our unjustly punitive actions.”

Solis sat down, suddenly weary. Around the chamber, he saw many contemplative faces. A few heads were bobbing up and down in agreement, while others shook in furious negation.

With a deep intake of breath, Vedek Eran called for a vote.

As Mika entered the room, she saw the Assembly’s decision etched clearly on Solis’s careworn face. The flickering candlelight reflected in the tears that rolled slowly down his cheeks.

“Uncle, you did your best,” she said, crouching down near him. “All who heard your words were moved.”

He snorted, wiping at his cheek. “Not moved enough, it seems. Nor necessarily in the right direction. I fear that my words may have deepened the divide.”

“No,” she said. When he looked away, she grasped his jaw in her hand, forcing him to look at her. “No,” she repeated, more emphatically. “You spoke eloquently and truthfully. They are the ones who have chosen to estrange those of us who question. If there truly is a divide, then it is the Vedek Assembly majority that has torn it wider.”

He sniffed, and managed a weak smile. “At least the vote was a fraction closer this time.”

She smiled too, and caressed his cheek with the back of her hand. “Yes, it was. And perhaps if the full Assembly had been present, you would have swayed more of them. But nowhere near enough, I fear. Vedeks can be a stubborn lot.”

He made no argument with her gentle dig. “Some of the others will change their minds in time,” he said, nodding. “After their fear of us subsides. After we have been in the Federation for a while and the majority finally realizes that Bajor has not fallen from its orbit because of our presence.”

Mika’s child toddled into the room through the open doorway and cooed, smiling and running over to throw his arms around Solis’s legs.

Solis lifted the half-Cardassian child and hugged him back, looking over the boy’s head into Mika’s eyes. “I fear that by the time they change their minds, it will be too late. I won’t let the matter drop, child. I will bring the colonel’s cause up at the next Assembly session. And the one after that, and the one after that.”

Mika shook her head. “That approach will take years. I owe Kira my life, and the life of my son. And we both owe Kira for preserving the prophecies of Ohalu. Now is the time to act directly. To do something decisive to let the